First Swim Meet Back

Today, Natalie swam in her first club swim meet in eight months. We weren't sure if she would be ready. This past week, for example, she participated in volleyball in PE, which led to some soreness. Mind you, she was told by her physical therapist not to run or jump, but for some reason, she decided that didn't apply to the running and jumping she did while playing volleyball. Yesterday, she started getting sore during swim practice, so she stopped early, because she wanted to be able to swim in the meet today. We were hoping she could just swim hard today without setting back her progress, without making her back sore. Boy did she do that and more.

Her first event was the first event of the meet, the 50 yard butterfly. The fact that she was in the second heat out of nine shows how well she swam before her injury. Her seed time was 33.73 seconds. She looked great during her swim, but the touch pad didn't register her finish, so we couldn't tell what her race time was. She asked the timer at the end of the race, and I saw her smile. She looked up at Patrick and me, smiled, and told us that she dropped time. She dropped 0.42 seconds for a new personal best of 33.31 seconds. She was happy and we were happy.

Her next race was the 50 yard backstroke. Her seed time was 32.53 seconds, and she swam it in 32.90 seconds today. She added 0.37 seconds, but she was not upset at all. She was a little tentative at first, because her touch pad didn't register her finish again. Her friend Ally swam in the lane next to her. We were sitting with Ally's parents and she came up to see them. Ally told me that "Natalie did awesome!" I had to agree.

Natalie's last race was the 50 yard freestyle. Her seed time was 31.17 seconds. This time the touch pad registered her finish. She dropped 0.84 seconds for a new personal best of 30.33 seconds!

On the way home, she looked at her times and she was already making goals of dropping another second off her 50 yard freestyle time so she could get an "A" time. That's what she used to do after a meet. Things are getting back to normal. She still has her ups and downs, but she is definitely doing better. Her hard work paid off today, and we are so proud of her.